


Unnecessary Secrets

by ballerinaroy



Series: a witch and a witch meet in a muggle bar [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dating, F/F, Fluff, Muggle/Wizard Relations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-08 06:39:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18889201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ballerinaroy/pseuds/ballerinaroy
Summary: Evelyn is done dating witches, but she'd never really planned on meeting the perfect woman in the muggle world.From Reddit "Prompt: Romantic comedy: A witch and a witch (wizard) meet in the muggle world and start dating, with both constantly hiding their magic from each other since both assume that their partner is a muggle."





	Unnecessary Secrets

Evelyn was done dating witches. Positively done. There was nothing more infuriating than going on several dates with one only to discover that she was still in love with their ex, only to discover that their ex also happened to be hers. The curse, and Evelyn was quite convinced it was an actual curse, of living in such a small community and being limited to the few witches who dated witches.

It was how she found herself, after wasting four whole months being strung along by the welcome witch, alone, sitting in a muggle bar, trying to remember how their paper money worked.

“Sorry,” she muttered to the barkeep who was, appropriately, looking at her like she was stupid, only for the paper notes to go flying out of her hands and scattering about.

The man rolled his eyes and sighed as Evelyn dropped to her knees to gather it all.

“Would you like some help with that?”

Evelyn looked up only to be stunned by the most beautiful looking woman she’d ever seen, leaning down to help Evelyn gather her scattered money.

“Er—thank you,” Evelyn said, her face flushed as they stood up together.

Of all the things, meeting someone after something so embarrassing. The red-head, her hair in beautiful curls merely gave her a smile, her cheeks a little red—or was that the light? They stared at one another for several moments but before Evelyn could gather her thoughts enough to speak, the woman’s smile began to fade.

“Well, goodnight!” she said cheerfully, turning away.

“Could, I buy you a drink?” Evelyn half shouted after the woman.

“I’d love that,” the woman answered, turning around at once and flashing her a dazzling smile.

“I’m Evelyn,” she said, extending her hand to shake.

“Rose.”

 

“What do you do for work?” Evelyn asked.

They were cuddled on a bench by the water, a package of crisps half eaten on Rose’s lap and Evelyn’s ears still ringing a little from the club they’d wandered out of after several hours.

“I—er—I work with records,” Rose stammered, for the first time in the night her cool facade fading. 

“Records?” Evelyn questioned politely, “That’s, er—interesting.”

“It’s really not,” Rose answered, recovering. “Incredibly dull really, mostly fact-checking and tracking down books that have gone missing. What about you?”

“Oh, well, I work with the chemist,” Evelyn said, drawing from the briefing the Muggle Relations Office did with the departments earlier that year. “You know, measuring out —er—medicines.”

“Oh,” Rose answered, confusion on her face.

Knowing her story wouldn’t hold up under questioning, Evelyn chose to slip her hand into Rose’s and the question disappeared from her lips as they tilted their heads towards one another. They didn’t say anything for some time after that.

 

“You’ve got a nice place,” Rose said approvingly, as they walked through the door, arms tangled around each other, “Cozy.”

Evelyn had taken the precautions of storing away her spell books, hidden the moving portraits and quills and even remembered to hide the traveling cloak that usually hung on the door.

“I know it’s tiny, but it’s worth it to live alone,” Evelyn explained, putting her arm around Rose’s waist and pulling her in close. “And my ex made off with the telly, I’m not that much of a loser.”

“Oh,” Rose said, that dazzling grin on her face as she looked Evelyn straight in the eyes. “I hadn’t even noticed.”

 

 

Evelyn didn’t know what she’d been thinking, dating a muggle. She didn’t know muggle terms, hardly knew how to use their money. Why hadn’t she paid more attention the summer she’d been forced to spend time with her squib great uncle? Or was he her second cousin?

Each date Evelyn found herself terrified she’d be found out, every time she stumbled over a simple pronunciation she waited for Rose to find her out but Rose would merely laugh and ask with mildly suspicious eyes, “Are you sure you’ve lived here your whole life?”

Two dates turned into three and a week turned into two months and Evelyn had never related so much to anyone, witch or muggle. And yet? Even as they said _I love you_ and Evelyn really meant it, she felt like it was only a matter of time before Rose found out the truth and ran away screaming.

The secret felt ready to burst out of her, each time they met she worried that it would slip, that she’d reach for her wand out of habit, or that Rose would get nosey and go through those drawers filled with the relics of her magical abilities.

But she knew Rose had secrets too. For one, they’d yet to visit her house, choosing instead to spend every weekend, and even most weeknights, in Evelyn’s cozy flat. Rose explained that she had an overbearing roommate that Evelyn wouldn’t want to meet and she’d never pressed her on it. She like sleeping in her own bed. She liked it even more when Rose was in it.

 

 

“What are your plans for the holiday?” Evelyn asked casually. The cool summer evening they’d met turned to fall and now the beginning of December. Evelyn had never been a fan of the cold before, but this year she hadn’t minded the chill so long as Rose was there to hold her hand.

“Oh,” Rose answered, elusively “You know, going to spend time with my family.”

“And when are you going to introduce me to this family you’re so close with?” Evelyn teased.

“When are you going to introduce me to yours?” Rose said challengingly.

“Alright,” Evelyn answered, refusing to back down. “We’ll have dinner with my parents, they’ll love you.”

Rose blinked at her in surprise. “Oh, I’d like that.”

Evelyn wasn’t used to her backing down so easily, Rose was nearly impossible to surprise. She waited for Rose to rise to the challenge but Rose merely stared at her.

“Are you not out to your family?” Evelyn braved in what she hoped was an understanding voice.

“No, I am, well, sort of.” Rose struggled. “My family just doesn’t know that I’m dating.” 

“Doesn’t know you’re dating?” Evelyn repeated.

“Yes, well,” Rose said, her face fully flushed. “I’m sort of, in the process of separating-“

“Separating,” Evelyn repeated stupidly.

“-from my husband.”

“Ah.”

There was an uncomfortable silence that Evelyn didn’t know how to fill.

“We got married pretty young,” Rose went on, avoiding her eye. “Straight out of school. Lots of people in my family got married young and when they warned me not to, I thought it was hypocritical and we rushed into it because of that-“

“You got married young to rebel against your parents?” Evelyn interrupted.

“Not exactly, but, well, you haven’t met them,” she said, her face flushed. “They’re both as stubborn as they come and my godfather has always said I got the worst of them.”

Stunned, Evelyn watched Rose wring her hands together. They’d been together for almost six months, six months of sleeping in the same bed almost every night, meeting for coffee, six months of dating one another and she’d never said. Evelyn felt blind sighted, betrayed, how could she not have told her? And yet—Evelyn had yet to reveal her deepest secret, tell Rose the truth. She could hardly begrudge her for failing to reveal such a large part of her life.

“Is that why you never have me over?” Evelyn asked suddenly as the thought occurred to her. “Do you still live with him?”

Rose flushed again but nodded. “He travels a lot for work, so he’s almost never home. Until we sell the house neither of us can afford to move.”

“And what does he do?” Evelyn asked politely.

“He’s an athlete,” Rose told her. “Part of the reason it took us so long to figure out we didn’t work together, it’s easy to have a relationship when you only ever see each other a couple of nights a week.”

“Ah,” Evelyn nodded.

“Look, we got married young, we were just kids and I thought I knew what I wanted in my life. It never even occurred to me that I might be gay until suddenly I was twenty-two and I had an unusually close relationship I’d with this cute girl in my department.” Rose rambled quickly, “Grant and I, we were always such good friends, and that hasn’t changed but I spent a lot more time thinking about this girl than I did him.”

Evelyn didn’t know what to say. All her life she’d known that she held no attraction to men. She couldn’t possibly imagine not knowing, figuring it out later in life.

Rose had tears in her eyes and in a heavy voice asked, “Would you like me to go?”

She realized it’d been several minutes since either of them had last spoken. Evelyn looked from Rose to her bag, still packed and by the door. As much as she felt blind-sighted, she didn’t want to be alone. “No, you came all this way.”

Rose breathed a sigh of relief, but it did nothing to the anxious look on her face. “I don’t want you to think of me as a bad person, things were just going so well between us and I didn’t want this to end.”

“I just don’t know why you didn’t tell me,” Evelyn said in a small voice.

“I didn’t want to lose you,” Rose said, reaching out a hesitant hand that Evelyn grasped. “These past few months have been magical.”

 

 

“I’m going to start a load, do you want me to throw in your jeans?” Evelyn called through the cracked bathroom door where Rose was showering.

“Would you mind throwing in my jumper too?” she asked, peeking her head out and flashing Evelyn her signature dazzling smile, “It’s on your bed.”

“Only for you,” Evelyn answered to Rose’s chuckle.

Evelyn shut the door to the bedroom and walked back through to the bedroom where Rose’s clothes were scattered across the bed. The jumper that Rose had worn out the night before was lying next to her open bag and what Evelyn saw stopped her heart.

She’d always been so careful with her wand, locking it away in her nightstand before Rose came over. She’d never been so careless as to just leave it out. How had it gotten there? Evelyn flushed, snatching up the wand and shoving it into her pocket just as the water shut off.

Had Rose seen?

Her heart pounded in her chest as she hurried out of the flat and down the way to the shared washer. She took as much time as she dared, patting her back pocket frequently to ensure it was still there. What would Rose think?

Evelyn took as much time as she could deliberating what she would say should Rose ask about it. _Oh, it’s just a plaything_ or _are you sure it wasn’t a chopstick?_ When she re-entered the flat it was to her alarm that Rose looked equally as frazzled. She was tearing through her belongings, tossing them into her bag, searching about and then dumped them back out again.

When she heard the door shut, Rose turned and looked at her anxiously. “Did you grab anything of mine?”

“No,” Evelyn answered, hoping her voice was casual. “Just the jumper.”

Rose’s eyes were as wide as Evelyn had ever seen them and she looked manically around the room. “Ah, er, and did you happen to notice anything else?”

“No?” Evelyn said, her heart pounding again. “Why, is something missing?”

“No, no I’m sure I just…” Rose trailed off, dropping to her knees and lifting the bedspread.

“What are you looking for?” Evelyn asked loudly, hurrying over before Rose, who’d been feeling around the ground with her hands and knees could reach the trunk where she’d stored all of her magical belongings.

Rose looked up, her eyes wide and stammered for a moment. 

“This is going to seem an odd question,” Rose prefaced, “But I had a—er—branch in my bag, it’s silly really, but it’s sentimental to me, you didn’t happen across it, did you?”

“A branch?” Evelyn repeated.

“Yes,” Rose went on, “But my grandfather made it for me and, well…”

She was still peering around the room, undeterred by Evelyn’s attempt to redirect her.

“What does it look like?” Evelyn asked, her eyes suddenly narrowed.

“Er, it’s about eleven inches long, looks a bit like-“

“A wand?” Evelyn asked, she reached into her back pocket and pulled out the wand she’d thought was her own.

Rose sighed with relief, and walked over, plucking the wand out of Evelyn’s hand. “I suppose it does look a bit like a wand,” she said with a nervous laugh. She clutched the wand close to her chest never the less. “Like I said, it’s silly.”

Evelyn stared at her for a moment as realization washed over her. She could hear Rose still stammering an explanation as she took a step towards her nightstand and with trembling hands opened the drawer and fished around. It was only when she turned, wand held in her outstretched hand that Rose stopped her babbling.

“Records, huh?” Evelyn asked of her when she’d recovered enough for speech.

“Department of Magical Records,” Rose admitted to her, her mouth still hanging open comically. “Chemist?”

“I brew potions for St. Mungo’s,” Evelyn answered.

Rose let out a barking laugh of relief and before Evelyn knew it she joined in, moving in to embrace the witch she’d spent the past year lying too.

“There’s one thing you should know,” Rose said several minutes of laughing and stolen kisses. “Er, my maiden name is Weasley.”

For the second time realization dawned on Evelyn’s face. “I knew you looked familiar.”

 


End file.
